LEWISTON — Maine pianist Duncan J. Cumming will join violinist Hilary Cumming and cellist Sölen Dikener when the Capital Trio returns to the Franco-American Heritage Center on Saturday, Feb. 27. They will present an all-Chopin program during the week of the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

The Capital Trio is the resident trio at the University at Albany, where Cumming is assistant professor of music.

This Piano Series recital will open with the Scherzo in B-flat minor for solo piano, followed by one of Chopin’s early masterpieces, the Trio in G minor, composed when he was only 19. The program will close with the Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, the last of Chopin’s works to be published in his lifetime. The composer dedicated this work to cellist Auguste Franchomme, with whom he played it at his last public concert, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, in February 1848.

Cumming grew up in Wiscasset and, while in high school, began studying with Frank Glazer and continued as he went on to Bates College. Following graduation with highest honors, Cumming studied at the European Mozart Academy in Prague, then returned to study with Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory, where he received a master-of-music degree in 1996. Later, he earned a doctorate in music from Boston University and was assistant director of the Tanglewood Institute’s young artists piano program from 2002 to 2008.

Cumming is known for his carefully constructed programs and for his informal and informative commentary during recitals. Besides performing in cities across Europe and in the United States, he has given master classes, offered outreach concerts for children and served on juries for competitions.

He is now in his fourth year on the faculty of the University at Albany, where he recently held a Beethoven Festival, including Frank Glazer’s third residency in honor of his 95th birthday. Last year, Cumming published a book titled “The Fountain of Youth: The Artistry of Frank Glazer.”

Dikener and Cumming formed a musical bond of friendship when, at their first meeting, they discovered that their teachers, Paul Tortelier and Glazer, had performed together 70 years earlier in Paris and Boston. Dikener began his cello studies at age 8 in his native Turkey and soon entered the class of “highly gifted students” at the State Conservatory in Ankara, from which he received his undergraduate degree at age 18. He then studied in France with the legendary Paul and Maud Tortelier.

Dikener came to the United States in 1992, to continue his cello studies at Louisiana State University, where he received his master’s degree. He holds a doctoral degree from Michigan State University and currently teaches at Marshall University, where he also conducts the university symphony orchestra. In the summer, he returns to Turkey to direct an international summer music academy and a chamber music festival. Dikener has given recitals and performed with chamber groups and orchestras in Europe and the United States.

Hilary Walther Cumming, a member of the faculty at the University at Albany, received her undergraduate training at Northwestern University, where she studied with Gerardo Ribeiro. She completed her master’s degree in violin performance at Indiana University. Awarded a Fulbright grant, she then studied at the Royal Conservatory in Copenhagen with Peder Elbaek and Marta Libalova, and often traveled to Paris for lessons with Sylvie Gazeau and Nell Gotkovsky. Her interests have allowed her to develop a repertoire of classical, baroque and Irish traditional music. She has performed as soloist and in ensembles from South America to Eastern Europe, as well as across the Northeastern United States. Her most recent compact disc, on the Meridian label, was made in August 2008 with the Musicians of the Old Post Road.

Go and do

WHAT: Piano Series recital

WHO: Duncan Cumming, Hilary Cumming and Sölen Dikener

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 27

WHERE: Franco-American Heritage Center, 46 Cedar St., Lewiston

TICKETS: $16/adults; $14/seniors. Students 21 and under admitted free. Call 689-2000 or go to www.francoamericanheritage.org.

‘A Musical Carousel’ for schoolchildren

Duncan Cumming, concert artist, educator and children’s book author, will give a presentation, “A Musical Carousel – Stories with Narration, Art, and Music,” especially for third- and fourth-graders, on Friday, Feb. 26.

The presentations, based on Cummings’ children’s books “From Bangkok to Bangor” and “From Haverhill to the Highlands,” will be at 12:30 p.m. and at 4:15 p.m. at the Franco-American Heritage Center.

Cumming will present this 45-minute program from the keyboard and illustrate the stories with music and original art.

Admission is free. Teachers and parents should call the Franco center’s box office, 689-2000, for arrangements.